Good afternoon. Medical doctors are once again on strike. In a country where people tend to avoid health clinics when they have a hospital within reach, hospital emergency units tend to serve everybody’s needs, from car accidents to colds and fevers in the current winter. The strike, therefore, threatens to cause serious chaos.
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The health ministry and the Mozambican Medical Association have been unable to find common ground to resolve their differences. A little over 2000 medical doctors are demanding better salaries, payment of arrears, compensation for extra hours and clarity about what they will gain under the new salary structure announced last year.
On the eve of the new strike, the health ministry said it was in dialogue with the association, but the talks failed to prevent doctors from walking out of wards and emergency units.
